Methods and apparatus for optimizing tunneled traffic

ABSTRACT

A satellite communication system may be configured to establish multiple different tunnels between a first satellite modem and a second satellite modem in accordance with a protocol. The first satellite modem may receive a packet via a tunnel established in accordance with a different protocol, determine an endpoint identifier corresponding to the tunnel based on information from one or more headers included in the packet, identify one of the multiple different tunnels that corresponds to the tunnel, generate a corresponding packet omitting at least a portion of the information from the one or more headers and comprising at least a portion of data included in a payload of the packet and an information block comprising a tunnel index corresponding to the identified one of the multiple different tunnels, and transmit the corresponding packet to the second satellite modem via the identified one of the multiple different tunnels.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/941,834 filed Mar. 30, 2018, and entitled “Methods and Apparatus forOptimizing tunneled Traffic”, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/384,530, filed Dec. 20, 2016, and entitled“Methods and Apparatus for Optimizing Tunneled Traffic”, which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/740,297,filed Jun. 16, 2015, and entitled “Methods and Apparatus for OptimizingTunneled Traffic”, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. Nos. 62/028,287, filed Jul. 23, 2014, and entitled“Methods and Apparatus for Optimizing Tunneled Traffic” and 62/017,366,filed Jun. 26, 2014, and entitled “Methods and Apparatus for OptimizingTunneled Traffic,” the disclosures of each of which are incorporated byreference herein in their entireties and made part hereof.

FIELD

Aspects of the disclosure pertain to the field of data communication ingeneral and to data communication over high latency media in particular.

BACKGROUND

The General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) supports data communication incellular networks. In Third Generation (3G) and Long Term Evolution(LTE) cellular networks, data communication is exchanged using the GPRSTunneling Protocol (GTP). The user data tunneling part of the GTPprotocol (GTP-U) is used over interfaces between access points(base-stations) and core network entities in many types of cellularnetworks, including over IuB interfaces in Universal MobileTelecommunication Systems (UMTS), IuH interfaces in 3G networks, and S1interfaces in LTE networks. In 3G networks, the GTP-U is applied to alldata traffic but not to voice traffic, which is carried outside GTP-Utunnels. In LTE networks, GTP-U may be applied to voice traffic (i.e.,voice traffic can be carried inside a GTP tunnel), depending on theVoice over LTE (VoLTE) model used.

The interfaces between access points and core network entities may spanlarge distances, over various types of links. When a satellite link orother high latency link is used for backhauling interfaces betweenaccess points and core networks entities (like the IuB, IuH, and S1interfaces), traffic between access points and core network entities issubjected to high latency. Unfortunately, subjecting traffic to highlatency often leads to performance degradation. In order to mitigate orprevent performance degradation and poor user experience, transmissionControl Protocol (TCP) acceleration methods, Hyper Text TransferProtocol (HTTP) acceleration methods, and/or various caching methods maybe applied.

Satellite bandwidth is a limited resource with significant usage costs.Thus, cellular traffic backhauled over a satellite link should bebackhauled in an efficient manner to minimize operation costs. Voiceover IP (VoIP) traffic is often characterized by small packets withrelatively high overhead. Transmitting VoIP traffic “as is” over asatellite link is likely to result in significantly inefficientutilization of the satellite resource. Accordingly, it may be desirableto identify and treat voice traffic (e.g., to minimize delay, jitter,packet loss, and/or overhead) to prevent degradation in voice qualityand/or achieve more efficient utilization of satellite resources.

While there are known technologies for TCP acceleration, HTTPacceleration, caching, and VoIP treatment, they may be less effectivewhen the traffic is encapsulated with tunneling information. Asignificant challenge exists in applying acceleration and cachingmethods to traffic encapsulated with tunneling information.

Examples of known technologies for acceleration, caching, and VoIPtreatment are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,947,440, to Chatterjee et al.and U.S. Pat. No. 8,837,349 to Yabo et al.

SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basicunderstanding of some aspects of the disclosure. This summary is not anextensive overview of the disclosure. It is intended neither to identifykey or critical elements of the disclosure nor to delineate the scope ofthe disclosure. The following summary merely presents some aspects ofthe disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the descriptionbelow.

In accordance with aspects of the disclosure, a satellite communicationsystem may be configured to establish multiple different tunnels betweena first satellite modem and a second satellite modem in accordance witha protocol. The first satellite modem may receive a packet via a tunnelestablished in accordance with a different protocol, determine anendpoint identifier corresponding to the tunnel based on informationfrom one or more headers included in the packet, identify one of themultiple different tunnels that corresponds to the tunnel, generate acorresponding packet omitting at least a portion of the information fromthe one or more headers and comprising at least a portion of dataincluded in a payload of the packet and an information block comprisinga tunnel index corresponding to the identified one of the multipledifferent tunnels, and transmit the corresponding packet to the secondsatellite modem via the identified one of the multiple differenttunnels.

In some embodiments, tunnels (e.g., tunnels generated in accordance withGTP-U) may be extended over a satellite link. In some embodiments, asatellite communication system may comprise a sender station and areceiver station. The sender station (e.g., a satellite modem associatedtherewith) may be configured to receive (e.g., over a LAN interface) apacket comprising data encapsulated with tunneling information (e.g., inaccordance with GTP-U), perform one or more methods in accordance with aprotocol and/or an application associated with the packet to produce acorresponding packet, and transmit the corresponding packet (e.g., overa satellite link) to the receiver station (e.g., a satellite modemassociated therewith). The receiver station may be configured to receive(e.g., over the satellite link) the packet transmitted by the senderstation, perform one or more methods in accordance with the packet toproduce a corresponding packet, and transmit (e.g., over a LANinterface) the packet it produces towards its next destination. In someembodiments, the stations may be configured to establish a tunnelcorresponding to the tunneling information encapsulating the dataincluded in the packet received by the sender station. In suchembodiments, the sender station may be configured to transmit and thereceiver station may be configured to receive (e.g., the correspondingpacket produced by the sender station) via the tunnel establishedbetween the stations. In some embodiments, the packet produced by thereceiver station may correspond to the tunnel established between thestations and/or comprise data encapsulated with the tunnelinginformation encapsulating the data included in the packet received bythe sender station.

In some embodiments, data may be received via a tunnel (e.g., a GTPtunnel), classified, and processed in accordance with itsclassification. In some embodiments, the data may be classified into oneor more of a TCP class, an HTTP over TCP class, a Domain Name System(DNS) class, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) class, or a jitter-and/or delay-sensitive-traffic class.

In some embodiments, header compression may be applied to at least aportion of the data received via the tunnel. For example, one or more ofan Ethernet, IP, UDP, or GTP header associated with the tunnel may becompressed.

In some embodiments, TCP traffic received via the tunnel may beaccelerated (e.g., for transmission over a satellite link). For example,at each side of a satellite link, a TCP connection may be associatedwith a forward tunnel and a return tunnel. In some embodiments, TCPtraffic may be accelerated at a sender station by generating anacknowledgement (e.g., a spoofed acknowledgement) corresponding to asegment received via a forward tunnel associated with the TCP connectionand sending the acknowledgement to an originator of the segment via areturn tunnel associated with the TCP connection. Additionally oralternatively, TCP traffic may be accelerated at a receiver station byrecording in association with a corresponding TCP connection one or morevalues associated with an acknowledgment received for the segment via aforward tunnel associated with the TCP connection (e.g., from itsdestination) and dropping the acknowledgement in lieu of forwarding itto the sender station (e.g., when it may be unnecessary to send theacknowledgement over the satellite link).

In some embodiments, HTTP traffic received via the tunnel may beaccelerated (e.g., to improve user browsing experience). For example,HTTP traffic may be accelerated utilizing one or more pre-fetching orcaching techniques. Moreover, since the data underlying HTTP traffic isoften communicated via one or more TCP connections, the acceleration ofTCP traffic may also accelerate HTTP traffic.

In some embodiments, redundant information included in the trafficreceived via the tunnel may be identified and eliminated.

In some embodiments, UDP traffic (e.g., SIP signaling traffic, RTPtraffic, DNS traffic, non-RTP real-time traffic, other non-real-timetraffic, or the like) received via the tunnel may be identified forspecialized processing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Having thus described the disclosure in general terms, reference willnow be made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarilydrawn to scale, and wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a communication system in accordance with aspects of thedisclosure;

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of an example sender station in accordancewith aspects of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 shows a sender station and a receiver station in accordance withaspects of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 shows a GTP header format in accordance with aspects of thedisclosure;

FIG. 5 shows an example of an HTTP session in accordance with aspects ofthe disclosure; and

FIG. 6 shows an example of DNS sessions in accordance with aspects ofthe disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to FIG. 1 , communication system 100 may comprise at least oneuser equipment device (e.g., a UE) (110), at least one access point(e.g., an eNodeB) (120) and at least one core network device (e.g., anevolved packet core (EPC)) (160). The at least one access point (120)and the at least one core network device (160) may be configured tocommunicate, at least with each other, using one or more tunnels (190)corresponding to the GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP). In some embodiments,said one or more tunnels (190) may correspond to the data user part ofthe GTP (GTP-U). While the terms used in the above examples may bederived from specific cellular communication technologies (e.g., the 3rdGeneration Partnership Project (3GPP), Long Term Evolution (LTE), etc.)system 100 may represent various other types of cellular communicationnetworks, as well as other types of wireless communication networks.

In some embodiments, the at least one access point (120) and the atleast one core network device (160) may be geographically separated andthe one or more GTP tunnels (190) used by the at least one access point(120) and the at least one core network device (160) may be carried overone or more high latency links. In the example shown in FIG. 1 , such ahigh latency link is represented by a satellite link. The satellite linkmay comprise at least a first satellite modem (130) and a secondsatellite modem (150), wherein the first satellite modem (130) and thesecond satellite modem (150) may be configured to communicate, at leastwith each other, via a satellite (140), for example, using appropriatetransmission and reception means (e.g., 135 and 155 corresponding to thefirst satellite modem (130) and the second satellite modem (150),respectively). The first satellite modem (130) may be configured to becoupled to (170) the at least one access point (120) and may be referredto as a user-facing station. The second satellite modem (150) may beconfigured to be coupled to (180) the at least one core network device(160) and may be referred to as a web-facing station (e.g., since the atleast one core network device (160), which may be coupled to the secondsatellite modem (150), may be configured to enable access to webservers, SIP servers, DNS servers, data centers, Intranet servers,and/or any other type of network or servers).

In some embodiments, system 100 may comprise a plurality of accesspoints. In such embodiments, each access point may be coupled to asatellite modem configured to communicate with one or more satellitemodems coupled to the at least one core network device (160). In someembodiments, each satellite modem coupled to an access point may beassociated with a very small aperture terminal (VSAT) and the satellitemodems coupled to the at least one core network device (160) may bereplaced by or correspond to a satellite communication hub coupled tothe at least one core network device (160).

Since GTP tunnels may be unidirectional, each GTP tunnel in system 100may be associated with a sender station and a receiver station. FIG. 3shows a first network device (350) (e.g., an access point or a corenetwork device) coupled to a sender station (200), and a second networkdevice (360) (e.g. a core network device or an access point) coupled toa receiver station (300). The first network device (350) may beconfigured to send information to the second network device (360) via atleast one GTP tunnel (390). The sender station (200) may be configuredto receive from the first network device (350) a packet comprising dataencapsulated in accordance with the GTP-U (310), perform one or moremethods in accordance with a protocol and/or an application associatedwith the packet to produce a corresponding packet, and transmit thecorresponding packet to the receiver station (300), for example, over ahigh latency link (e.g., via a satellite). In some embodiments, thesender station (200) may be configured to transmit and the receiverstation (300) may be configured to receive the corresponding packet viaan internal tunnel (320) established between the sender station (200)and the receiver station (300), which may correspond to the at least oneGTP tunnel (390). The receiver station (300) may be configured toreceive the packet produced by the sender station (200) over the highlatency link (e.g., via the satellite), perform one or more methods inaccordance with the received packet to produce a corresponding packet,and transmit the packet it produces to the second network device (360)using the GTP-U (330). In some embodiments, the packet produced by thereceiver station (300) may correspond to the internal tunnel (320)through which the packet was transmitted by the sender station (200) andreceived by the receiver station (300). In some embodiments, the firstsatellite modem (130) and/or the second satellite modem (150) maycomprise both a sender station (200) and a receiver station (300) for atleast the purpose of transmitting and receiving traffic encapsulatedusing the GTP-U.

In some embodiments, the internal tunnel (320) may be encrypted. Forexample, the packet received by the sender station (200) may compriseunencrypted data, and the sender station (200) may be configured toproduce a corresponding packet as previously described and encrypt thepacket (or data contained therein) in accordance with an encryptionscheme prior to transmitting the packet to the receiver station (300).The receiver station (300) may be configured to receive the packetproduced by the sender station (200), decrypt the packet (or datacontained therein) in accordance with the encryption scheme, produce acorresponding packet as previously described, which may comprise thedecrypted packet (or data contained therein), and transmit the packet itproduces to the second network device (360).

In some embodiments, the first network device (350) may be configured tosend information to the second network device (360) via a plurality ofdifferent GTP tunnels, and the sender station (200) may be configured totransmit and/or the receiver station (300) may be configured to receivepackets associated with the plurality of GTP tunnels over a plurality ofdifferent internal tunnels. Each internal tunnel of the plurality ofinternal tunnels may be associated with a corresponding GTP tunnel ofthe plurality of different GTP tunnels. In such embodiments, the senderstation (200) may be configured to encrypt and/or the receiver station(300) may be configured to decrypt packets (or data contained therein)received or transmitted via an internal tunnel with an encryption keyassociated with the internal tunnel (e.g., the data transmitted andreceived via each of the plurality of different internal tunnels may beencrypted and decrypted using an encryption key that differs fromencryption keys used to encrypt and decrypt data transmitted andreceived via the other internal tunnels).

In some embodiments, the packet (or data contained therein) received bythe sender station (200) may be encrypted, and the sender station (200)may be configured to decrypt the packet (or data contained therein) andencrypt the corresponding packet it produces (or data contained therein)in accordance with a different encryption scheme (e.g., algorithm, key,or the like), for example, an encryption scheme associated with theinternal tunnel (320). Additionally or alternatively, the receiverstation (300) may be configured to encrypt the corresponding packet itproduces in accordance with an encryption scheme that differs from theencryption scheme utilized by the sender station (200) to encrypt thepacket (or data contained therein) communicated via the internal tunnel(320) and/or an encryption scheme in which the packet (or data containedtherein) received by the sender station (200) may be encrypted.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of an example sender station 200 (e.g., thesender station 200 of FIG. 3 ). Sender station 200 may comprise a GTPmodule (210), one or more protocol specific and/or application specificprocessing modules (e.g., 220 to 280), and a satellite interface module(290). GTP module (210) may comprise a tunnels database (215). Areceiver station (e.g., such as the receiver station 300 of FIG. 3 ) maybe similar to the sender station 200 shown in FIG. 2 , with the flowsbetween the modules being reversed. For example, in a receiver station(e.g. 300), flow may be from a satellite interface module to one or moreprocessing modules, from the one or more processing modules to a GTPmodule, and from the GTP module to a GTP-U interface). As previouslydescribed, a satellite modem (e.g., any of the first satellite modem(130) and the second satellite modem (150)), may comprise at least asender station (e.g., 200) and a receiver station (300). In someembodiments, the satellite modem may be configured to comprise at leasta single (unified) GTP module (210) and a single (unified) tunnelsdatabase (215) that may be common to both the sender station (200) andthe receiver station (300), wherein at least the GTP module (210) may beconfigured both as a corresponding sender station module and as acorresponding receiver station module. In some embodiments, thesatellite modem may be configured to have unified application specificand/or protocol specific modules (e.g., 220 to 280) and/or a unifiedsatellite interface module (290) that may be common to both the senderstation (200) and the receiver station (300), wherein each of theunified modules may be configured both as a corresponding sender stationmodule and as a corresponding receiver station module. Therefore,references made herein to the modules shown in FIG. 2 may refer to thesender station (200) or the receiver station (300) according to thecontext, unless otherwise specifically indicated.

The GTP module (210) may be configured to use the tunnels database (215)for at least the purpose of storing information corresponding to one ormore GTP tunnels that the GTP module (210) may be configured to detect.The GTP module (210) may be configured to store in the tunnels database(215), for each of the one or more GTP tunnels, a tunnel endpointidentifier (TEID) corresponding to the respective GTP tunnel. In someembodiments, for example, a sender station (200) may be configured to becoupled to multiple network devices (e.g., access points or core networkdevices) wherein two or more of the multiple network devices may use asame TEID value for their respective GTP tunnels. In such embodiments,it might not be possible for the GTP module (210) of the sender station(200) to uniquely identify a GTP tunnel based only on a TEID value.Thus, in such embodiments, for at least the purpose of uniquelyidentifying each of the one or more GTP tunnels, the GTP module (210)may be configured to store in the tunnels database (215), for at leastone GTP tunnel of the one or more GTP tunnels, additional informationelements that may correspond to the at least one GTP tunnel, including,for example, a source Internet Protocol (IP) address, destination IPaddress, Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) identifier, and/or source UDPport number. In some embodiments, the additional information elementsthat may correspond to the at least one GTP tunnel may further includeany of a source Media Access Control (MAC) address and/or a destinationMAC address (for example, a source Ethernet address and/or a destinationEthernet address).

In some embodiments, the GTP module (210) of a sender station (200) maybe configured to receive one or more packets (for example, from a firstnetwork device (350) that may be coupled to the sender station (200))and to determine that at least one of the one or more packets may becarried in a GTP tunnel (e.g., 390). In some embodiments, the GTP module(210) of the sender station (200) may be configured to determine thatthe at least one packet (e.g., of the one or more received packets) maybe carried in a GTP tunnel (390) by determining that the at least onepacket may be received in accordance with the user datagram protocol(UDP) and that the at least one packet may be associated with adestination UDP port number of 2152. The GTP module (210) of the senderstation (200) may be further configured, upon determining that the atleast one packet may be carried in a GTP tunnel, to at least parse a GTPheader corresponding to (or included in) the at least one packet and toextract from the GTP header corresponding to the at least one packet atleast a tunnel endpoint identifier (TEID).

In accordance with the GTP-U, in order to establish a GTP tunnel betweena source GTP endpoint and a destination GTP endpoint (e.g., an accesspoint and/or a core network device) having a corresponding source IPaddress and a destination IP address respectively (and using adestination UDP port number 2152), Echo Request and Echo Responsemessages (echo packets) may be exchanged between the GTP endpoints.These echo packets may include an invalid tunnel endpoint identifier(e.g., their TEID may be set to 0). In some embodiments, the GTP module(210) of the sender station (200) may be configured to determine whethera received packet includes a valid (e.g., non-zero) TEID and todetermine that the received packet may not be associated with or carriedin any GTP tunnel upon determining that the received packet includes aninvalid TEID. The GTP module (210) of the sender station (200) may beconfigured, upon determining that a packet may not be associated with orcarried in any GTP tunnel, to forward the received packet at least tothe satellite interface module (290) while bypassing (217) at least theapplication specific processing modules (e.g., 220 to 280). Thus, thesender station (200) may be configured to transparently transmit GTPtunnel establishment messages (e.g., echo packets) at least to acorresponding receiver station (e.g., 300).

The GTP module (210) of the sender station (200) may be furtherconfigured, upon extracting a TEID from a GTP header corresponding tothe at least one packet, to determine whether the at least one packetmay be a first packet of one or more packets that may be associated witha GTP tunnel corresponding to the extracted TEID. The GTP module (210)of the sender station (200) may be configured to determine whether theat least one packet (of the one or more received packets) may be a firstpacket associated with a GTP tunnel by searching the tunnels database(215) for a record comprising a TEID value corresponding to the at leastone packet, wherein the at least one packet may be determined to be afirst packet associated with a GTP tunnel if no record including theTEID value is found in the tunnels database (215). The GTP module (210)of the sender station (200) may be configured, upon determining that theat least one packet is a first packet associated with a GTP tunnel, toadd a new record corresponding to the GTP tunnel to the tunnels database(215), wherein the new record may include at least the TEID valuecorresponding to the at least one packet.

As previously mentioned, in some embodiments the GTP module (210) of thesender station (200) may be configured to extract from the at least onepacket additional information elements corresponding to the at least onepacket, for example, source MAC address, destination MAC address, asource IP address, destination IP address, Virtual Local Area Network(VLAN) identifier, and/or source UDP port number. In such embodiments,the GTP module (210) of the sender station (200) may be furtherconfigured to determine whether the at least one packet (of the one ormore received packets) may be a first packet associated with a GTPtunnel by searching the tunnels database (215) for a record comprising aTEID value and values of any of the additional information elementscorresponding to the at least one packet, wherein the at least onepacket may be determined to be a first packet associated with a GTPtunnel if no record including the TEID value and the values of any ofthe additional information elements may be found in the tunnels database(215). The GTP module (210) of the sender station (200) may beconfigured to, upon determining that the at least one packet is a firstpacket that may be associated with a GTP tunnel, add a new recordcorresponding to the GTP tunnel to the tunnels database (215), whereinthe new record may include at least the TEID value and the values of anyof the additional information elements corresponding to the at least onepacket.

Furthermore, the GTP module (210) of the sender station (200) may beconfigured, upon determining that the at least one packet (of the one ormore received packets) may be a first packet associated with a GTPtunnel (390), to establish an internal tunnel (320) between the senderstation (200) (e.g., of a first satellite modem) and (a GTP module of) areceiver station (300) (e.g., of a second satellite modem), wherein theinternal tunnel (320) may correspond to the GTP tunnel (390)corresponding to the at least one packet. In some embodiments, whereinfor example system 100 may comprise a plurality of receiver stations(satellite modems), the GTP module (210) of the sender station (200) maybe configured to determine the receiver station (satellite modem) thatcorresponds to the at least one packet (e.g., in accordance with adestination IP address associated with the at least one packet) andestablish the internal tunnel (320) with the determined receiver station(300). In some embodiments, the GTP module (210) of the sender station(200) may be configured to establish the internal tunnel (320) with the(GTP module of the) receiver station (300) by sending a sessionestablishment message over the link (e.g., a high latency link)connecting the sender station (200) (e.g., of the first satellite modem)and the receiver station (300) (e.g., of the second satellite modem),wherein the session establishment message may include at least the TEIDvalue corresponding to the GTP tunnel (390). The GTP module of thereceiver station (300) may be configured to, upon receiving a GTPsession establishment message, store one or more session parametersprovided in the received GTP session establishment message in a tunnelsdatabase (e.g., similar to tunnels database (215) of the sender station(200) or unified with a tunnels database (215) of a sender station (200)that may be included in the same satellite modem).

In some embodiments, the GTP module (210) of the sender station (200)may be configured to include in a session establishment messageadditional information elements corresponding to (the at least onepacket associated with) the GTP tunnel (390), for example, in additionto the TEID value corresponding to the GTP tunnel (390). The additionalinformation elements may include, for example, a GTP version indicator(e.g., as it may be included in a GTP header of the at least onepacket), an internal TEID index, source IP address, destination IPaddress, Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) identifier, and/or source UDPport number. In some embodiments, the additional information elementsmay further include any of a source MAC address and/or a destination MACaddress, e.g., for at least the purpose of enabling reconstruction of aMAC header by the receiver station (300). In some embodiments, aninternal TEID index included in a GTP session establishment message maybe used by the sender station (200) and/or by the receiver station(300), after the internal tunnel (320) has been established, forexample, to reference the internal tunnel (320) or for overhead (headersize) reduction. It may be noted that information elements such as TEID,GTP version, internal TEID index, source MAC address, destination MACaddress, source IP address, destination IP address, VLAN identifierand/or source UDP port may be constant for as long as the correspondingGTP tunnel (390) may be open, thus including them in a GTP sessionestablishment message may allow header compression for any subsequentpackets that may be transmitted via the GTP tunnel (390) and/orprocessed by the sender station (200) and/or the receiver station (300).

In some embodiments, wherein the internal tunnel (320) may be encrypted,the session establishment message may include information correspondingto an encryption key used for encrypting packets (or data containedtherein) sent over the internal tunnel (320). In some embodiments, suchinformation may be exchanged using another protocol (e.g., rather thanin a session establishment message), for example, using a key exchangealgorithm that the sender station (200) and/or the receiver station(300) are configured to support.

In some embodiments, for example, wherein various resources (e.g.,storage capacity, processing power, etc.) that may be associated withany of the sender station (200) and/or the receiver station (300) may belimited, the sender station (200) and/or the receiver station (300) maybe configured to support a procedure for a teardown of an internaltunnel (320). In some embodiments, the GTP module (210) of the senderstation (200) may be configured to send a session closing message to the(GTP module of the) receiver station (300) for at least the purpose oftearing down an internal tunnel (320), wherein the session closingmessage may comprise at least an internal TEID index corresponding tothe internal tunnel (320) being torn down. The GTP module (210) of thesender station (200) may be configured to send a session closing messageto the (GTP module of the) receiver station (300) upon, for example,determining that no packets associated with the corresponding GTP tunnel(390) have been received for a predefined period of time, or receiving apacket associated with the corresponding GTP tunnel (390) that comprisesan end marker. The sender station (200) and/or the receiver station(300) may be configured, upon tearing down an internal tunnel (e.g.,320), to further tear down sessions associated with the correspondingGTP tunnel (390), including, for example, transmission control protocol(TCP) connections (e.g., by using TCP reset), sessions established usingthe Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), and/or Real-time TransportProtocol (RTP) sessions. The GTP module (210) of the sender station(200) and/or the GTP module of the receiver station (300) may beconfigured, upon tearing down an internal tunnel (e.g., 320), to deleterecords corresponding to the respective GTP tunnel (390) from thetunnels database (215).

As previously described, the GTP module (210) of the sender station(200) may be configured to receive one or more packets (e.g., from afirst network device (350) that may be coupled to the sender station(200)), determine that at least one of the one or more packets may becarried in a GTP tunnel (e.g., 390), parse a GTP header corresponding to(or included in) the at least one packet, and extract from the GTPheader at least a tunnel endpoint identifier (TEID). The GTP module(210) of the sender station (200) may be further configured, based on atleast the extracted TEID (and in some embodiments based also onadditional information elements, as previously described), to associatethe at least one packet with an internal tunnel (e.g., 320) and/or withan internal TEID index, for example, either by establishing a newinternal tunnel with a respective receiver station (300) (e.g., if theat least one packet may be the first packet of one or more packetsassociated with the corresponding GTP tunnel (e.g., 390)) or byassociation to an already established internal tunnel (e.g., if the atleast one packet may not be the first packet associated with thecorresponding GTP tunnel).

In accordance with aspects of the disclosure, the GTP module (210) ofthe sender station (200) may be further configured to, upon parsing theGTP header corresponding to the at least one packet, determine (e.g.,based on the GTP header) a packet type that may be associated with theat least one packet, and parse a protocol data unit (PDU) correspondingto (or included in) the at least one packet if the packet type isassociated with a traffic packet type (e.g., T-PDU). The GTP module(210) of the sender station (200) may be configured to, upon parsing thePDU corresponding to the at least one packet, determine any of anapplication and/or a protocol that may be associated with the at leastone packet, and classify the at least one packet, e.g., in accordancewith the determined application and/or protocol, into a classcorresponding to one of the protocol specific and/or applicationspecific modules (e.g., 220 to 280) of the sender station (200),including, for example, a TCP class, HTTP over TCP class, Domain NameSystem (DNS) class, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) class, and/or ajitter- and/or delay-sensitive-traffic class. In some embodiments, theGTP module (210) of the sender station (200) may be configured toclassify the at least one packet to a jitter- and/ordelay-sensitive-traffic class based on, for example, a protocol type(e.g., UDP, Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP), or InternetControl Message Protocol (ICMP)), source IP address, destination IPaddress, source port number, destination port number, DifferentiatedServices Code Point (DSCP), type of service (TOS) marking, or VLAN tag.

The GTP module (210) of the sender station (200) may be configured to,upon classifying the at least one packet, generate a correspondingpacket from the at least one packet by at least removing from the atleast one packet a MAC header, an IP header, a UDP header, and/or a GTPheader and adding an information block comprising at least an internalTEID index corresponding to the internal tunnel (320) with which the atleast one packet is associated. In some embodiments, the addedinformation block may further comprise additional information items thatmay be extracted from any of the removed headers, for example, theadditional information items may comprise differing values betweenpackets associated with the corresponding GTP tunnel (390). The GTPmodule (210) of the sender station (200) may be configured to, upongenerating the corresponding packet, forward the corresponding packet toany of the protocol specific and/or application specific modules (e.g.,220 to 280), for example, in accordance with a class previouslyassociated with the at least one packet, for at least the purpose offurther processing the corresponding packet (e.g., in accordance withthe respective application and/or protocol). The sender station (200)may be configured to, upon completing any processing of thecorresponding packet by any of the protocol specific and/or applicationspecific modules (e.g., 220 to 280), generate a packet (e.g., inaccordance with said processing), and forward the packet to thesatellite interface module (290) of the sender station (200) fortransmission (e.g., over a satellite link) to the respective receiverstation (300).

The receiver station (300) may be configured to receive (e.g., via asatellite interface of the receiver station (300)) the packettransmitted by the sender station (200), associate the packet with aninternal tunnel (320), for example, based on an internal TEID indexincluded in the packet and corresponding to the internal tunnel (320),generate (e.g., in accordance with a protocol and/or an applicationassociated with the packet) a corresponding packet, generate (e.g., atthe GTP module of the receiver station) at least in accordance with thecorresponding packet a packet for transmission to the second networkdevice (360), for example, by reconstructing an IP header, UDP header,and/or GTP header (e.g., in accordance with the GTP tunnel (390)corresponding to the internal tunnel (320)), and transmit said packet tothe second network device (360) using the GTP-U (330). In someembodiments, said reconstructing may further include reconstructing aMAC header (e.g., an Ethernet header) in accordance with the GTP tunnel(390), e.g., for at least the purpose of providing fully transparentconnectivity between the first network device (350) and the secondnetwork device (360). In some embodiments, the packet transmitted by thereceiver station (300) to the second network device (360) may be similarto the at least one packet received by the sender station (200) from thefirst network device (350) (e.g., any differences that may exist do notaffect the GTP tunnel (390) between the first network device (350) andthe second network device (360)).

In some embodiments, the GTP module (210) of the sender station (200)may be configured to apply GTP tunnel header compression to receivedpackets associated with a GTP tunnel (e.g., 390). The headers beingcompressed may include an IP header, UDP header, and/or GTP headerassociated with the GTP tunnel (390). In some embodiments, the headersbeing compressed may further include one or more MAC headers (e.g., oneor more Ethernet headers) associated with the GTP tunnel (390). The GTPtunnel header compression (e.g., compression of headers associated witha GTP tunnel) may be applied independently of any additional headercompression that may be applied to packets received via the GTP tunnel,for example, compression associated with specific protocols and/orapplications (e.g., TCP header compression, RTP header compression,etc.).

As previously described, the GTP module of the sender station (200) maybe configured to, upon generating the packet corresponding to the atleast one received packet, remove a MAC header, an IP header, UDPheader, and/or GTP header and add an information block comprising atleast an internal TEID index corresponding to an internal tunnelassociated with the at least one packet. The added information block mayfurther comprise an indication that the corresponding packet may be GTPtunnel header compressed. The GTP module of a corresponding receiverstation (300) may be configured to, upon generating a correspondingpacket, determine that the packet is GTP tunnel header compressed andreconstruct the IP header, UDP header, and/or a GTP header. In someembodiments, said reconstructing may additionally or alternativelyinclude reconstructing a MAC header. The GTP module of the senderstation (200) and/or the GTP module of the receiver station (300) may beso configured for at least the purpose of avoiding transmission (e.g.,over a satellite link) of the MAC header, IP header, UDP header, and/orGTP header, for example, for each packet associated with the respectiveGTP tunnel (e.g., 390). At least for the purpose of allowing thereceiver station (300) to reconstruct the MAC header, IP header, UDPheader, and/or GTP header, the GTP module (210) of sender station (200)and/or the corresponding GTP module of the receiver station (300) may beconfigured to exchange information elements corresponding to the MACheader, IP header, UDP header, and/or GTP header of at least one packetassociated with a respective GTP tunnel (e.g. 390) while establishingthe respective internal tunnel (e.g., 320), wherein such exchange maynot include information elements that may vary in value throughout theexistence duration of the internal tunnel (320). In some embodiments,the GTP module (210) of sender station (200) and/or the correspondingGTP module of the receiver station (300) may be configured to exchangeinformation elements that may not be constant throughout the duration ofexistence of the internal tunnel (320) in accordance with a protocolthat may be used by the GTP module (210) of sender station (200) and/orthe corresponding GTP module of the receiver station (300).

In some embodiments, the GTP module (210) of sender station (200) and/orthe GTP module of the receiver station (300) may be configured toexchange information elements associated with a MAC header, an IP header(e.g., a source IP address, destination IP address, etc.) and/or with aUDP header as part of establishing an internal tunnel (320). The GTPmodule of the receiver station (300) may be configured to reconstruct orlocally generate the information elements associated with a MAC header,an IP header and/or a UDP header, e.g., in accordance with saidexchange, excepting IP header information elements associated withpacket fragmentation and/or IP header information elements associatedwith DSCP. In some embodiments, for TCP connections and RTP sessions,the GTP module (210) of sender station (200) and/or the GTP module ofthe receiver station (300) may be configured to exchange IP headerinformation elements that may be associated with DSCP once per eachconnection or session respectively, e.g., upon connection initialization(TCP) or session establishment (RTP).

FIG. 4 shows an example format of a GTP header. In some embodiments, theGTP module (210) of sender station (200) and/or the GTP module of thereceiver station (300) may be configured to exchange a GTP version andTEID information elements associated with a GTP header, e.g., as part ofestablishing an internal tunnel (320). The GTP module of the receiverstation (300) may be configured to reconstruct or locally generate theprotocol type (PT) field, the message type field (e.g., only traffic PDUpackets may be subjected to header compression), the length field,and/or the sequence number field. The GTP module (210) of sender station(200) and/or the GTP module of the receiver station (300) may beconfigured to transmit and/or receive respectively (e.g., over asatellite link) the sequence number indicator field (S). The GTP module(210) of sender station (200) may be configured to not compress a GTPheader (e.g., transmit it as it is received) and/or the GTP module ofthe receiver station (300) may be configured to receive an uncompressedGTP header, if the next extension indicator field (E) and/or the N-PDUindicator field (PN) is set (e.g., thus transmitting the correspondingfields that may be indicated by these indicators from the sender station(200) to the receiver station (300)).

In some embodiments, GTP tunnel header compression may be applied topackets that may not be associated with any of the one or more classescorresponding to the one or more protocol specific and/or applicationspecific modules (e.g., 220 to 280), for example, to packets that maynot be associated with any stream or connection (e.g., ICMP packets, UDPpackets not falling into any of the one or more classes, etc.). The GTPmodule (210) of the sender station (200) may be configured to determinethat at least one packet (e.g., of one or more received packets) may notbe associated with any of the one or more said classes, generate apacket corresponding to the at least one packet, for example, byapplying GTP tunnel header compression (e.g., as previously described)to the at least one packet, wherein the corresponding packet maycomprise an information block comprising an internal TEID index (e.g.,corresponding to an internal tunnel associated with the at least onepacket), an indication that the corresponding packet may be GTP tunnelheader compressed, and/or an indication that the corresponding packetmay not be associated with any of the one or more said classes, andforward the corresponding packet to the satellite interface module (290)of the sender station (200) while bypassing (217) the protocolspecific/application specific modules (e.g., 220 to 280) of the senderstation (200). The receiver station (300) may be configured to determinethat a packet received via a satellite interface module (e.g., of thereceiver station (300)) may not be associated with any of the one ormore classes corresponding to the one or more protocol specific and/orapplication specific modules of the receiver station (300) and forwardthe received packet to the GTP module of the receiver station (300)while bypassing all the protocol specific and/or application specificmodules (e.g., of the receiver station (300)). The GTP module may beconfigured to determine that the received packet may be GTP tunnelheader compressed and reconstruct the headers as previously described.

In some embodiments, the satellite modem may be configured to accelerateTCP traffic encapsulated inside one or more GTP tunnels, for example,using the sender station (200) and the receiver station (300) of thesatellite modem.

Acceleration of TCP traffic may include spoofing of acknowledgements.For example, a sender station (200) of a first satellite modem may beconfigured to receive (e.g., from a first network device coupled to thefirst satellite modem) a TCP segment encapsulated inside a first GTPtunnel and transmit (e.g., to the first network device) anacknowledgement for the TCP segment, wherein the sender station (200) ofthe first satellite modem may be configured to transmit theacknowledgement for the TCP segment before a correspondingacknowledgement for the TCP segment may be received (e.g., over asatellite link), for example, by the receiver station (300) of the firstsatellite modem from the destination of the TCP segment (e.g., from asecond network device that may be coupled to a second satellite modem).Since GTP tunnels are unidirectional, an acknowledgement for the TCPsegment may need to be sent on a second GTP tunnel, different from thefirst GTP tunnel (390).

In some embodiments, the sender station (200) of a first satellite modemmay be configured to receive (e.g., from a first network device (350)that may be coupled to the first satellite modem) a TCP SYN segment thatmay be encapsulated in a first GTP tunnel (e.g., 390). The senderstation (200) of the first satellite modem may be configured toassociate a TCP connection (session) corresponding to the TCP SYNsegment with the first GTP tunnel, wherein the first GTP tunnel may be aforward GTP tunnel for the TCP connection at the first satellite modem,store said association in a memory (e.g., in a tunnels database of a GTPmodule), and transmit the TCP SYN segment to the second satellite modem(e.g., using a first internal tunnel (e.g. 320) corresponding to thefirst GTP tunnel (e.g., 390)). In some embodiments, if the firstinternal tunnel corresponding to the first GTP tunnel does not yet exist(e.g., at the time of receiving the TCP SYN segment), the sender station(200) of the first satellite modem may be configured to establish (e.g.,with the receiver station (300) of the second satellite modem) the firstinternal tunnel corresponding to the first GTP tunnel (e.g., aspreviously described), and transmit the TCP SYN segment to the secondsatellite modem after the first internal tunnel has been established.The receiver station (300) of the second satellite modem may beconfigured to receive (e.g., from the first satellite modem) at leastthe TCP SYN segment, associate the TCP connection (session)corresponding to the TCP SYN segment with the first GTP tunnel, whereinthe first GTP tunnel may be a return GTP tunnel for the TCP connectionat the second satellite modem, store said association in a memory (e.g.,in a tunnels database of a GTP module), and transmit the TCP SYN segment(e.g., to a second network device (360) that may be coupled to thesecond satellite modem).

The sender station (200) of the second satellite modem may be configuredto receive (e.g., from the second network device (360)), a TCP SYN-ACKthat may be encapsulated in a second GTP tunnel, wherein the TCP SYN-ACKmay correspond to the TCP SYN segment. The sender station (200) of thesecond satellite modem may be configured to associate the TCP connection(session) corresponding to the TCP SYN-ACK with the second GTP tunnel,wherein the second GTP tunnel may be a forward GTP tunnel for the TCPconnection at the second satellite modem, store said association in amemory (e.g., in a tunnels database of a GTP module), and transmit theTCP SYN-ACK to the first satellite modem (e.g., using a second internaltunnel corresponding to the second GTP tunnel). In some embodiments, ifthe second internal tunnel corresponding to the second GTP tunnel doesnot yet exist (e.g., at the time of receiving the TCP SYN-ACK), thesender station (200) of the second satellite modem may be configured toestablish (e.g., with the receiver station (300) of the first satellitemodem) the second internal tunnel corresponding to the second GTP tunneland transmit the TCP SYN-ACK to the first satellite modem after thesecond internal tunnel has been established. The receiver station (300)of the first satellite modem may be configured to receive (e.g., fromthe second satellite modem) the TCP SYN-ACK, associate the TCPconnection (session) corresponding to the TCP SYN-ACK with the secondGTP tunnel, wherein the second GTP tunnel may be a return GTP tunnel forthe TCP connection at the first satellite modem, store said associationin a memory (e.g., in a tunnels database of a GTP module), and transmitthe TCP SYN-ACK (e.g., to the first network device (350)).

In some embodiments, the sender station (200) and/or the receiverstation (300) of the first satellite modem and/or the second satellitemodem may be configured to modify (e.g., by using a TCP module includedin the sender station (200) or the receiver station (300)) a TCP SYNsegment and/or a TCP SYN-ACK before forwarding the TCP SYN segmentand/or the TCP SYN-ACK. In such embodiments, modifying any of the TCPSYN segment and/or the TCP SYN-ACK may comprise at least any of adding aTCP option field that may be used for setting a maximum message size(MSS) for the respective TCP connection, and modifying a same TCP optionfield if a same TCP option field may already exist in the TCP SYNsegment and/or in the TCP SYN-ACK (e.g., for at least the purpose ofsetting an MSS value for the respective TCP connection). The senderstation (200) and/or the receiver station (300) may be configured to,upon modifying and/or adding a TCP option field used for setting an MSSfor the respective TCP connection, determine a size (e.g., inoctets/bytes) of a maximum transmission unit (MTU) of an IP packet thatmay correspond to a GTP tunnel corresponding to the respective TCPconnection, calculate an MSS by deducting from the determined MTU sizethe sizes of anticipated headers (e.g., the sizes of an IP header, UDPheader, and/or GTP header associated with the GTP-U and/or the sizes ofan IP header and/or TCP header associated with TCP segment encapsulatedin the GTP tunnel), and set an MSS for the respective TCP connection toa value smaller than or equal to the calculated MSS. In someembodiments, setting an MSS for the respective TCP connection asdescribed above may prevent fragmentation of TCP segments (e.g., betweenmultiple packets that may be encapsulated into a GTP tunnelcorresponding to the respective TCP connection), thus perhaps enabling asimpler embodiment of a sender station (200) and/or a receiver station(300).

Once a TCP connection has been established, for example, end-to-end(e.g., between the first network device (350) and the second networkdevice (360)), the first satellite modem and/or the second satellitemodem may have associated the TCP connection with both a forward GTPtunnel and a backward GTP tunnel, respectively. The first satellitemodem and/or the second satellite modem may be configured to, followingestablishment of the end-to-end TCP connection, receive (e.g., from acoupled network device) at least one TCP segment corresponding to theTCP connection, wherein the at least one TCP segment may be encapsulatedin a forward GTP tunnel for the TCP connection at the respectivesatellite modem, generate an acknowledgement (e.g., a spoofedacknowledgement) for the at least one TCP segment, and transmit (e.g.,to the coupled network device) the (spoofed) acknowledgementencapsulated in a return GTP tunnel for the TCP connection at therespective satellite modem. Furthermore, the first satellite modemand/or the second satellite modem may be configured to receive over asatellite link (e.g., from the second satellite modem and/or the firstsatellite modem, respectively) at least one packet comprising the atleast one TCP segment (or data contained therein), and transmit a packetcontaining the received payload (e.g., the at least one TCP segment (ordata contained therein)) to a network device coupled to the respectivesatellite modem, wherein the packet may be encapsulated in a return GTPtunnel for the TCP connection (e.g., associated with the at least oneTCP segment) at the respective satellite modem. The first satellitemodem and/or the second satellite modem may be further configured toreceive an acknowledgement for the transmitted TCP segment in a forwardGTP tunnel for the TCP connection at the respective satellite modem,record in association with the respective TCP connection one or morevalues corresponding to the received acknowledgement (e.g., for at leastthe purposes of managing (TCP) transmission windows and/or applying flowcontrol), determine to drop the received acknowledgement (e.g., inaccordance with a TCP acceleration policy), and drop the receivedacknowledgement without forwarding it to the satellite interface of therespective satellite modem.

In some embodiments, the GTP module (210) of the sender station (200)may be configured to receive a packet comprising a TCP segmentencapsulated in a first GTP tunnel, associate the first packet with afirst internal tunnel corresponding to the first GTP tunnel, classifythe first packet into a TCP class, generate a corresponding packet(e.g., by applying GTP tunnel header compression as previouslydescribed), wherein the corresponding packet may be associated with aninternal TEID index corresponding to the first internal tunnel, andforward the corresponding packet (e.g., in accordance with the TCP classinto which the associated packet was classified) to a TCP module (220)of the sender station (200). In some embodiments, the correspondingpacket may comprise at least the TCP segment included in the associatedpacket. The TCP module (220) of the sender station (200) may beconfigured to receive the corresponding packet, generate a packet basedon the corresponding packet by replacing an IP header and/or TCP headercorresponding to the TCP segment (e.g., that may be included in thecorresponding packet) with a smaller header corresponding to a protocolconfigured to support TCP/IP header compression, and forward the packetto the satellite interface module (290) of the sender station (200)(e.g., for transmission to a respective receiver station (300)).

In some embodiments, the TCP module (220) of the sender station (200)may be configured to generate an acknowledgement (e.g., a spoofedacknowledgement) for the TCP segment included in the packet, wherein the(spoofed) acknowledgement may include an indication (e.g., an internalTEID index) of the internal tunnel that the (spoofed) acknowledgementmay be associated with (e.g., a second internal tunnel corresponding toa return (second) GTP tunnel for the TCP connection associated with theTCP segment) and send the (spoofed) acknowledgement (e.g., via the GTPmodule (210) of the sender station as previously described). In someembodiments, the TCP module (220) of the sender station and/or the TCPmodule of a corresponding receiver station (300) may be furtherconfigured to indicate, for example, upon establishing a TCP connection(e.g., between the first network device (350) and the second networkdevice (360)) a request to number TCP segments associated with the TCPconnection (e.g., using the sequence number field of the GTP header(FIG. 4 )), inside the GTP tunnels that correspond to the TCP connection(e.g., a forward and/or return GTP tunnel corresponding to the TCPconnection). The TCP module (220) of the sender station may be furtherconfigured to determine that the TCP segment may be associated with aTCP connection established with a request to number TCP packets insidethe corresponding GTP tunnel(s) and generate an acknowledgement (e.g., aspoofed acknowledgement) for the TCP segment comprising a sequencenumber indication (e.g., an indication to apply numbering inside thecorresponding GTP tunnel). In such embodiments, the GTP module (210) ofthe sender station (200) may be further configured to determine that apacket to be encapsulated into a GTP tunnel has to be transmitted with asequence number field in the GTP header (e.g., by determining that thepacket may include a sequence number indication) and increase a sequencenumber associated with a corresponding GTP tunnel (e.g., uponencapsulating the packet into the GTP tunnel or transmitting the packetwith a sequence number field present (e.g., in a GTP header)). In suchembodiments, generating an acknowledgement (e.g., a spoofedacknowledgement) for the TCP segment may comprise incrementing by one asequence number associated with a return GTP tunnel (e.g., a second GTPtunnel) corresponding to the TCP connection.

Furthermore, a TCP module of the receiver station (300) may beconfigured to receive at least the packet (e.g., via a satelliteinterface module of the receiver station (300)), wherein the packet maycomprise a payload of the TCP segment, a (small) header corresponding toa protocol configured to support TCP/IP header compression, and aninternal TEID index corresponding to a GTP tunnel (390) and/or aninternal tunnel (320). The TCP module of the receiver station (300) maybe further configured to generate a corresponding packet byreconstructing the IP header and/or TCP header (e.g., in accordance withthe (small) header included in the received packet) and forward thecorresponding packet to a GTP module of the receiver station (300). Insome embodiments, the TCP module of the receiver station (300) may befurther configured to determine whether the TCP segment is associatedwith a TCP connection established with a request to number TCP packetsinside the corresponding GTP tunnel(s) and generate the correspondingpacket to include a sequence number indication. The GTP module of thereceiver station (300) may be configured to receive the correspondingpacket, associate the corresponding packet with the respective internaltunnel (320) (e.g., in accordance with the internal TEID index),generate a packet encapsulating the corresponding packet into a GTPtunnel corresponding to the internal TEID index, wherein encapsulatingthe corresponding packet may include reconstructing the IP header, UDPheader, and/or a GDP header corresponding to the first GTP tunnel, andtransmit the packet (e.g., to a coupled network device). In someembodiments, said reconstructing may additionally or alternativelyinclude reconstructing the MAC header corresponding to the first GTPtunnel. In some embodiments, the GTP module of the receiver station(300) may be further configured to determine whether the correspondingpacket includes a sequence number indication and, if the correspondingpacket includes a sequence number indication, generate a correspondingpacket with a sequence number field in the GTP header and increase byone a sequence number associated with the GTP tunnel corresponding tothe packet (e.g., the first GTP tunnel).

In some embodiments, the TCP module of the receiver station (300) may beconfigured to process TCP packets associated with a GTP tunnel (e.g.,TCP packets received at a corresponding sender station (200) via a GTPtunnel) and TCP packets that may be unassociated with any GTP tunnel(e.g., TCP packets received unencapsulated by a satellite modem at theother side of a satellite link). In such embodiments, the TCP module ofthe receiver station (300) may be further configured to, upon receivingthe packet, determine whether the packet includes an internal TEID indexcorresponding to a GTP tunnel and/or an internal tunnel, forward thecorresponding packet to a GTP module of the receiver station (300) ifthe packet includes an internal TEID index and transmit thecorresponding packet (e.g., to a coupled network device) if the packetdoes not include an internal TEID index.

In some embodiments, the satellite modem may be configured to accelerateHTTP traffic encapsulated inside one or more GTP tunnels, for example,using the sender station (200) and/or the receiver station (300) of thesatellite modem.

Acceleration of HTTP traffic encapsulated inside one or more GTP tunnelsmay comprise a pre-fetching technique. For example, the pre-fetchingtechnique may include anticipating a need for one or more objects andobtaining the one or more objects from one or more servers hosting theone or more objects before a user application issues a request for theone or more objects. Furthermore, since HTTP traffic is often carriedover TCP, acceleration of TCP (e.g., as previously described) may alsoaccelerate HTTP traffic.

Referring to FIG. 5 , a user network device (510) may be coupled (e.g.,using one or more GTP tunnels (520)) to a user-facing station (530),wherein the user-facing station (530) may be a first satellite modem(e.g., satellite modem 130 of FIG. 1 ). The user-facing station (530)may be configured to communicate, for example, over a high latency link(e.g. a satellite link) with a web-facing station (550), wherein theweb-facing station (550) may be a second satellite modem (e.g.,satellite modem 150 of FIG. 1 ). The web-facing station (550) may becoupled (e.g., using one or more GTP tunnels (560)), to one or moreservers (570). In some embodiments, the user-facing station (530) and/orthe web-facing station (550) may be configured to perform any of themethods previously described, including but not limited to extending theone or more GTP tunnels (520, 560) over a satellite link using one ormore corresponding internal tunnels (540), applying GTP tunnel headercompression to packets that may be received via the one or more GTPtunnels (520, 560), and accelerating TCP traffic that may beencapsulated in the one or more GTP tunnels (520, 560). In someembodiments, the user-facing station (530) and/or the web-facing station(550) may be configured to accelerate HTTP traffic encapsulated insidethe one or more GTP tunnels (520, 560), for example, by using apre-fetching technique.

The user-facing station (530) may be configured to receive (e.g., from auser network device (510)) a first request (580) for a first dataobject, wherein the first request (e.g., GET) may be included in one ormore packets corresponding to the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) andencapsulated in a first GTP tunnel of the one or more GTP tunnels (520)associated with the user network device (510), and the first GTP tunnelof the one or more GTP tunnels (520) may be associated with a first TEID(e.g., TEID X). A GTP module of the user-facing station (530) may beconfigured to associate the one or more packets with an HTTP trafficclass (e.g., as previously described) and to forward the one or morepackets to an HTTP module of the user-facing station (530) (e.g., 230 inFIG. 2 ). The HTTP module of the user-facing station (530) may beconfigured to associate a pre-fetching session corresponding to thefirst request with the first GTP tunnel of the one or more GTP tunnels(520), wherein the first GTP tunnel of the one or more GTP tunnels (520)may be a forward GTP tunnel for the pre-fetching session at theuser-facing station (530). The HTTP module of the user-facing station(530) may be further configured to store said association in a memoryand transmit the first request (581) to the web-facing station (550)(e.g., using a first internal tunnel (540) corresponding to the firstGTP tunnel of the one or more GTP tunnels (520)). The web-facing station(550) may be configured to receive (e.g., from the user-facing station(530) and/or over the first internal tunnel (540)) at least the firstrequest (581), associate a pre-fetching session corresponding to thefirst request (581) with a first GTP tunnel of the one or more GTPtunnels (560) associated with the one or more servers (570), wherein thefirst GTP tunnel of the one or more GTP tunnels (560) may be a returnGTP tunnel for the pre-fetching session at the web-facing station (550).The web-facing station (550) may be further configured to store saidassociation in a memory and transmit the first request (582) to a webserver (e.g., of the one or more web servers (570)) coupled to theweb-facing station (550), for example, over the first GTP tunnel of theone or more GTP tunnels (560).

The web-facing station (550) may be configured to receive (e.g., fromthe web server) a first response (583) corresponding to the firstrequest (582), the first response (583) comprising one or more packetscorresponding to the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) and encapsulatedin a second GTP tunnel of the one or more GTP tunnels (560) associatedwith the one or more servers (570), wherein the second GTP tunnel of theone or more GTP tunnels (560) is associated with a second TEID (e.g.,TEID Y). In some embodiments, the first response (583) may comprise a200 OK response. In some embodiments, the first response (583) maycomprise another type of response (or acknowledgement) sent by the webserver in response to the first request (582). In some embodiments, thefirst response (583) may include the first data object corresponding tothe first request (e.g., 580, 581, and 582).

An HTTP module of the web-facing station (550) may be configured toassociate the pre-fetching session corresponding to the first requestwith the second GTP tunnel of the one or more GTP tunnels (560)associated with the one or more servers (570), wherein the second GTPtunnel of the one or more GTP tunnels (560) may be a forward GTP tunnelfor the pre-fetching session at the web-facing station (550). In someembodiments, the web-facing station (550) may have already associatedthe pre-fetching session with the second GTP tunnel prior to receivingthe first response (583), for example, due to previously receiving anacknowledgement corresponding to the TCP protocol that underlies theHTTP protocol, wherein that acknowledgement may correspond, for example,to a TCP segment comprising the first request (581). The HTTP module ofthe web-facing station (550) may be further configured to store saidassociation in a memory (e.g., associated with an HTTP module of theweb-facing station (550)) and transmit the first response (584) to theuser-facing station (530) (e.g., using a second internal tunnel (540)corresponding to the second GTP tunnel of the one or more GTP tunnels(560)). The user-facing station (530) may be configured to receive(e.g., from the web-facing station (550) and/or over the second internaltunnel (540)) at least the first response (584) and associate thepre-fetching session corresponding to the first request (581) with asecond GTP tunnel of the one or more GTP tunnels (520) associated withthe user network device (510), wherein the second GTP tunnel of the oneor more GTP tunnels (520) may be a return GTP tunnel for thepre-fetching session at the user-facing station (530). The user-facingstation (530) may be further configured to store said association in amemory and transmit the first response (585) to the user device (510),for example, over the second GTP tunnel of the one or more GTP tunnels(520).

Following the exchange of the first request (580) and the first response(583), as described above, the user-facing station (530) and/or theweb-facing station (550) may have associated a pre-fetching sessioncorresponding to the first request and/or the first response with thecorresponding first and second GTP tunnels (TEID X and TEID Y) at eachof the respective stations (530, 550). Thus, after said association, theuser-facing station (530) and/or the web-facing station (550) may usethe pre-fetching session for at least the purpose of acceleratingretrieval of one or more subsequent objects associated with the firstdata object corresponding to the first request (580). In someembodiments, the above-described method of associating a pre-fetchingsession with corresponding first and second GTP tunnels (e.g., TEID Xand TEID Y) at each of the respective stations (530, 550) may berepeated when the user-facing station (530) receives (e.g., from a usernetwork device (510)) a request for a data object that may not beassociated with an active pre-fetching session.

In some embodiments, the HTTP module of the web-facing station (550) maybe configured to, upon receiving the first data object from the webserver and/or sending the first data object (e.g., 584) to theuser-facing station (530), to parse the first data object and determinewhether the first data object comprises links to one or more additionaldata objects associated with the first data object. The HTTP module ofthe web-facing station (550) may be further configured to, upondetermining that the first data object comprises one or more links toone or more additional data objects, send to the web server (570) one ormore additional requests (e.g., 586) for the one or more additional dataobjects, wherein the web-facing station (550) may be configured to sendthe one or more additional requests (e.g., 586) encapsulated in thefirst GTP tunnel of the one or more GTP tunnels (560)) associated withthe one or more servers (570) (e.g., using TEID X). The HTTP module ofthe web-facing station (550) may be further configured to receive atleast one data object of the one or more additional data objects (e.g.,587), wherein the at least one data object of the one or more additionaldata objects may be encapsulated in the second GTP tunnel of the one ormore GTP tunnels (560) (e.g., TEID Y) and transmit the at least one dataobject of the one or more additional data objects (e.g., 588) to theuser-facing station (530) using the second internal tunnel (540)corresponding to the second GTP tunnel of the one or more GTP tunnels(560).

The HTTP module of the user-facing station (530) may be configured to,upon receiving the at least one data object of the additional dataobjects (e.g., 588) over the second internal tunnel (540), to associatethe at least one data object of the additional data objects with thepre-fetching session corresponding to the first request (580) and storethe received at least one data object of the additional data objects ina memory of the user-facing station (530). The HTTP module of theuser-facing station (530) may be further configured to receive (e.g.,from the user network device (510) and over the first GTP tunnel of theone or more GTP tunnels (520) that may be associated with the usernetwork device (510) (e.g. TEID X)), one or more additional requests(e.g., 590) for one or more additional data objects that may beassociated with the first object, associate the one or more requestswith the pre-fetching session corresponding to the first request (580),determine that at least one data object of the requested one or moreadditional data objects is stored in a memory of the user-facing station(530), and transmit the at least one data object of the additional dataobjects (e.g., 591) to the user network device (510), for example, overthe second GTP tunnel of the one or more GTP tunnels (520) (e.g., TEIDY). The HTTP module of the user-facing station (530) may be furtherconfigured to drop a request for the at least one data objects of theadditional data objects (e.g., 590) and/or not transmit it to theweb-facing station (550), for example, due to servicing that requestfrom a memory of the user-facing station (530). Acceleration of HTTPtraffic may often be exercised for at least the purpose of improving abrowsing experience (e.g., of one or more users). In some embodiments,for at least the purpose of improving such a browsing experience,acceleration of HTTP traffic that may be encapsulated inside one or moreGTP tunnels may comprise a caching technique, for example, caching ofHTTP traffic encapsulated inside one or more GTP tunnels.

Referring to FIG. 5 , as previously described, following an exchange ofa first request for a first data object (580) and a first response (583)corresponding to the first request (e.g., where the first request andthe first response are associated with an HTTP session), the user-facingstation (530) and/or the web-facing station (550) may have associatedthe HTTP session with corresponding first and second GTP tunnels (e.g.,TEID X and TEID Y, respectively) at each of the respective stations(530, 550). In some embodiments, that association may occur prior toexchanging the first request (580) and the first response (583), forexample, upon establishing a TCP connection underlying the HTTP session.A GTP module of the user-facing station (530) may be configured to,after said association, receive (e.g., from the network user device(510) and over the first GTP tunnel that may be a forward GTP tunnel forthe HTTP session at the user-facing station (530)) one or moresubsequent requests for one or more data objects that may be associatedwith the first data object and forward the one or more subsequentrequests to an HTTP proxy module (e.g., 240 in FIG. 2 ) of theuser-facing station (530). The HTTP proxy module of the user-facingstation (530) may be configured to receive the one or more requests forthe data objects, determine whether a data object corresponding to atleast one of the one or more requests is stored in a cache associatedwith the HTTP proxy module, and generate a response (e.g., to the atleast one of the one or more requests) comprising at least the dataobject if the data object is stored in the cache. Furthermore, the HTTPproxy module of the user-facing station (530) may be further configuredto transmit (forward) at least one of the one or more requests (e.g.,GET) for data objects to a corresponding web-facing station (550) if adata object associated with the at least one of the one or more requestsis not be stored in the cache or if a data object associated with the atleast one of the one or more request is stored in the cache but may needto be refreshed. The HTTP proxy module of the user-facing station (530)may be configured to generate at least one response corresponding to theat least one forwarded request upon receiving a data objectcorresponding to the at least one forwarded request from thecorresponding web-facing station (550). The HTTP proxy module of theuser-facing station (530) may be further configured to, upon generatingthe at least one response, inspect one or more properties of the dataobject corresponding to the at least one response and store the dataobject in the cache if the data object qualifies for storage in thecache in accordance with said inspecting. The user-facing station (530)may be further configured to transmit one or more responsescorresponding to the one or more subsequent requests (e.g., to the usernetwork device (510)), for example, over the second GTP tunnel (e.g.,TEID Y), which may be a return GTP tunnel for the HTTP session at theuser-facing station (530).

Traffic redundancy elimination may be used for at least the purpose ofreducing bandwidth (capacity) consumption, wherein traffic redundancyelimination may comprise detecting recurring patterns within a trafficstream. When traffic is encapsulated inside a GTP tunnel, however,conventional methods for traffic redundancy elimination may not beeffective, for example, due to failing to detect different streamsinside the GTP tunnel. In some embodiments, the satellite modem may beconfigured to apply traffic redundancy elimination techniques to trafficencapsulated inside one or more GTP tunnels, for example, using thesender station (200) and/or the receiver station (300) of the satellitemodem.

In some embodiments, traffic redundancy elimination may be applied, forexample, to TCP traffic encapsulated in one or more GTP tunnels. Asender station (200) may be configured to receive one or more TCPsegments encapsulated in a GTP tunnel (310), extract one or morepayloads from the one or more TCP segments (e.g., as previouslydescribed), determine at least one stream that may be associated withthe one or more TCP segments, and search the payloads associated withthe at least one stream for one or more recurring patterns. The senderstation (200) may be configured to detect at least one recurring patternin at least one stream, store the recurring pattern in a memory of thesender station (200), and inform a corresponding receiver station (300)of the at least one recurring pattern in the at least one stream. Thereceiver station (300) may be configured to receive an indicationcomprising a recurring pattern for at least one stream and store the atleast one recurring pattern for the at least one stream in a memory ofthe receiver station (300).

Furthermore, the sender station (200) may be configured to receive oneor more additional TCP segments encapsulated in the GTP tunnel (310),extract one or more additional payloads corresponding to the at leastone stream from the one or more additional TCP segments, and detect theat least one recurring pattern associated with the at least one streamin the one or more additional payloads. The sender station (200) may beconfigured to, upon detecting the at least one recurring pattern, sendthe respective payloads to the receiver station (300) with the recurringpattern replaced by a shorter representation of the recurring pattern.In some embodiments, a shorter representation for a recurring patternmay comprise an index and an offset, wherein the index may be used foridentifying the recurring pattern from one or more stored recurringpatterns associated with the at least one stream, and wherein the offsetmay be used to indicate a location within a respective payloadcorresponding to (e.g., the start of) the recurring pattern. Thereceiver station (300) may be configured to detect the shorterrepresentation indication, search in a memory of the receiver station(300) for the recurring pattern corresponding to the shorterrepresentation, and reconstruct one or more corresponding payloads byreplacing the shorter representation with the corresponding recurringpattern. The receiver station (300) may be further configured to, uponreconstructing the payloads, restore one or more TCP headerscorresponding to the reconstructed payloads and transmit the restoredTCP segments encapsulated in a GTP tunnel (330), as previouslydescribed.

In some embodiments, the satellite modem may be configured to providespecialized processing to UDP traffic encapsulated inside one or moreGTP tunnels, for example, using the sender station (200) and/or thereceiver station (300) of the satellite modem. In some embodiments, UDPtraffic that may be specifically processed may include SIP signalingtraffic, RTP traffic, non-RTP real-time traffic (e.g., signaling forcellular networks, Skype voice traffic, etc.), and non-real-time traffic(e.g., DNS queries and responses for at least the purpose of enablingDNS caching).

A GTP module (210) of a sender station (200) may be configured toreceive a packet comprising a UDP segment encapsulated in a first GTPtunnel, and associate the packet with a first internal tunnel that maycorrespond to the first GTP tunnel. In some embodiments, if the GTPencapsulated UDP segment corresponds to a session (e.g., an RTPsession), association of the packet with a first internal tunnel (and/orwith a sequence number indicator) may be determined in accordance withthe session, which may be established between the sender station (200)and a corresponding receiver station (300). The GTP module (210) of thesender station (200) may be configured to classify the packet to a SIPclass, RTP class, real-time traffic class, and/or non-real-time trafficclass, generate a corresponding packet (e.g., by applying GTP tunnelheader compression, as previously described), wherein the correspondingpacket may be associated with an internal TEID index corresponding tothe first internal tunnel, and forward the corresponding packet (e.g.,in accordance with the class associated with the received packet) to aVoIP module (250), a jitter- and delay-sensitive-traffic module (260),and/or a jitter- and delay-tolerant-traffic module (270) of the senderstation (200). In some embodiments, the corresponding packet maycomprise the UDP segment included in the received packet. The VoIPmodule (250), the jitter- and delay-sensitive-traffic module (260)and/or the jitter- and delay-tolerant-traffic module (270) of the senderstation (200) may be configured to receive the corresponding packet, togenerate a packet comprising an internal TEID index corresponding to thefirst internal tunnel and/or a sequence number indicator (e.g., in theevent that sequence numbers need to be reconstructed by a correspondingreceiver station (300)). In some embodiments, generating the packet maycomprise compressing one or more headers of the UDP segment, forexample, in accordance with a compression policy or an applicationassociated with the UDP segment. In some embodiments, said compressingmay comprise stripping one or more of an IP header, UDP header, and/orRTP header, and replacing them with a descriptor corresponding to anapplication associated with the UDP segment. The VoIP module (250), thejitter- and delay-sensitive-traffic module (260), and/or the jitter- anddelay-tolerant-traffic module (270) of the sender station (200) may beconfigured to forward the packet to the satellite interface module (290)of the sender station (200) (e.g., for transmission to a respectivereceiver station (300)).

Furthermore, the VoIP module, jitter- and delay-sensitive-trafficmodule, and/or jitter- and delay-tolerant-traffic module of the receiverstation (300) may be configured to receive the packet (e.g., via asatellite interface module of the receiver station (300)), wherein thepacket may comprise a payload of the UDP segment and an internal TEIDindex corresponding to the first internal tunnel and/or a sequencenumber indicator. The VoIP module, the jitter- anddelay-sensitive-traffic module, and/or the jitter- anddelay-tolerant-traffic module of the receiver station (300) may beconfigured to generate a corresponding packet, wherein generating thecorresponding packet may comprise reconstructing one or more headers inaccordance with a compression policy or an application associated withthe packet. In some embodiments, said reconstructing may comprisereconstructing one or more of an IP header, UDP header, and/or RTPheader in accordance with a descriptor included in the packet. The VoIPmodule, the jitter- and delay-sensitive-traffic module and/or thejitter- and delay-tolerant-traffic module of the receiver station (300)may be configured to forward the corresponding packet to a GTP module ofthe receiver station (300). The GTP module of the receiver station (300)may be configured to receive the corresponding packet, associate it withthe first internal tunnel (e.g., in accordance with an internal TEIDindex) and to generate a packet encapsulating the corresponding packetinto a GTP tunnel corresponding to the included internal TEID index(e.g., the first GTP tunnel). In some embodiments, encapsulating thecorresponding packet may comprise reconstructing an IP header, UDPheader, and/or a GTP header corresponding to the first GTP tunnel (e.g.,as previously described). In some embodiments, said reconstructing mayfurther include reconstructing a MAC header corresponding to the firstGTP tunnel. The GTP module of the receiver station (300) may be furtherconfigured to transmit the encapsulating packet (e.g., to a couplednetwork device). In some embodiments, the GTP module of the receiverstation (300) may be further configured to determine whether the packetand/or the corresponding packet includes a sequence number indicator andif so, generate an encapsulating packet comprising a sequence numberfield in the GTP header and increase by one a sequence number associatedwith the GTP tunnel.

In some embodiments, session initiation protocol (SIP) messages may beexchanged between network devices (e.g., 120 and 160) for at least thepurpose of establishing one or more voice calls, video calls, or othertypes of sessions. As shown in FIG. 1 , the link between network devices(120, 160) may comprise a satellite link, which may be associated withlimited capacity. Occasionally, it may be that at the time of trying toestablish a new session the satellite link may have insufficient vacantcapacity to support the new session. At least for the purpose ofavoiding poor session quality, on such occasions, it may be advantageousto reject the call establishment attempt in an orderly manner. In someembodiments, a satellite modem (e.g., 130, 150) coupled to a networkdevice (e.g., 120, 160) may be configured to determine lack of vacantcapacity over the satellite link for supporting a new session andgenerate and transmit a termination message towards the coupled networkdevice for at least the purpose of forcing termination of the newsession. Wherein SIP messages used for session management (e.g.,establishment and tear-down) are encapsulated in one or more GTPtunnels, the satellite modem may receive a SIP message from a couplednetwork device in a first GTP tunnel (e.g., a forward GTP tunnel for thesession at the satellite modem) and may need to send a terminationmessage to the coupled network device in a second GTP tunnel (e.g., areturn GTP tunnel for the session at the satellite modem), wherein thesecond GTP tunnel may be different from the first GTP tunnel.

Session initiation protocol (SIP) messages may be sent in UDP segments(though SIP may be supported over TCP and other transport protocols aswell), and consequently, associating GTP encapsulated SIP messagesand/or sessions with a forward GTP tunnel and a return GTP tunnel, forexample, as previously described in the case of TCP, may beinapplicable.

A network device (e.g., 120, 160) coupled to a satellite modem (e.g.,130, 150) may initiate a SIP transaction (session) using a SIP method(e.g., Invite or Register) and expect a SIP response (e.g., the SIPmessage codes 1xx or 2xx may be applicable) to be received from a SIPcounterpart. The satellite modem (e.g., 130, 150) coupled to the networkdevice may be configured to extract one or more IP addresses and/or acall identifier (ID) from the one or more SIP messages (e.g., a SIPmethod message) and use the extracted one or more IP addresses and/orcall ID for at least the purpose of associating a SIP sessioncorresponding to the one or more SIP messages with a forward GTP tunneland/or a return GTP tunnel for the session at the satellite modem. Oncethe SIP session has been associated with a forward GTP tunnel and returnGTP tunnel at the satellite modem (e.g., 130, 150), the satellite modemsmay, if needed (e.g., upon determining lack of vacant capacity over thesatellite link for supporting the session), force termination of thesession, for example, by generating and sending a termination message(e.g., “Cancel,” “Bye,” or an error code message) on the return GTPtunnel corresponding to the session at the satellite modem. Furthermore,in some embodiments, once the SIP session has been associated with therespective GTP tunnels both at a sender station (200) and at a receiverstation (300) included in said satellite modems (e.g., 130, 150), one ormore RTP streams associated with the SIP session may be intercepted bythe sender station (200) and the receiver station (300) (e.g., for atleast the purpose of applying header compression to packets that may beassociated with the one or more RTP streams).

As indicated above, one or more RTP streams may be established inassociation with a SIP session after the SIP session has beenestablished, and in such a case, the parameters for intercepting the oneor more RTP sessions may be known from the SIP session. In someembodiments, one or more RTP streams may be established using a protocolother than SIP (e.g., stream control transmission protocol (SCTP)),which a sender station (200) and/or a receiver station (300) might notsupport parsing. In such embodiments, with a slight exception that eachdirection of an RTP stream may be separately handled, a sender station(200) and/or a receiver station (300) may be configured to process RTPpackets in a manner similar to processing RTP packets associated withstreams associated with SIP sessions. The sender station (200) and thereceiver station (300) may be configured to store in memory for eachdirection of each RTP stream a record comprising at least a TEID of aGTP tunnel corresponding to the respective RTP stream. Furthermore, thesender station (200) may be configured to apply header compression tothe RTP packets, for example, by replacing one or more of an IP header,UDP header, and/or RTP header with a descriptor. A receiver station(300) may be configured to associate compressed RTP packets receivedfrom a sender station (200) with an RTP session, reconstruct one or moreheaders (e.g., an IP header, UDP header, and/or RTP header) inaccordance with the RTP session, and encapsulate the reconstructed RTPpacket in a GTP tunnel in accordance with a TEID that associated withthe RTP session.

While not all real-time streams may be transmitted using RTP, suchstreams may also need to be properly handled (e.g., to reduce delayand/or jitter) when encapsulated in GTP tunnels. Handling of suchstreams (e.g., by a sender station (200) and/or a receiver station(300)) may be similar to handling RTP streams that are not associatedwith a known signaling protocol (e.g., SIP), for example, each directionof each such stream may be separately handled. Perhaps the maindifference in handling non-RTP streams compared to handling RTP streamsmay be associated with detecting the streams. Since non-RTP streams maybe carried over UDP with no additional header (e.g., anapplication-dependent header) or with an additional (e.g.,application-dependent) header but such that the sender station (200)and/or the receiver station (300) may not be configured to parse, thesender station (200) and the receiver station (300) may be configured todetect non-RTP streams based on preconfigured filters, wherein apreconfigured filter may comprise one or more of a source IP address,destination IP address, source UDP port, destination UDP port, and/orType of Service (ToS) or Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP). Thesender station (200) and the receiver station (300) may be furtherconfigured to compress and decompress headers of packets associated withnon-RTP streams, wherein such compression may comprise compressing an IPheader and/or a UDP header, if a UDP header is present.

In some embodiments, the satellite modem may be configured to performDNS caching, wherein DNS queries and/or corresponding DNS responses maybe encapsulated inside one or more GTP tunnels.

Usually, a user device sends a Domain Name System (DNS) query to a DNSserver and the DNS server sends a DNS reply corresponding to the DNSquery to the user device. The user device may use the DNS reply for DNScaching, wherein DNS caching may be a process used for improvingresponse time, for example, in responding to subsequent DNS queries. AsDNS messages (e.g., DNS queries and DNS responses) may be sent in UDPsegments, methods for associating GTP encapsulated DNS messages and/orsessions with a forward GTP tunnel and a return GTP tunnel, for exampleas previously described in the case of TCP, may be inapplicable.

FIG. 6 shows a user network device (510), a user-facing station (530), aweb-facing station (550) and one or more servers (570), as described inreference to FIG. 5 . The user network device (510), the user-facingstation (530), the web-facing station (550), and the one or more servers(570) may be coupled using one or more GTP tunnels (520, 560) and one ormore corresponding internal tunnels (540), as previously described inreference to FIG. 5 .

The user-facing station (530) may be configured to receive (e.g., from auser network device (510)) a first DNS query (610). The first DNS query(610) may be included in one or more UDP segments encapsulated in afirst GTP tunnel of the one or more GTP tunnels (520) associated withthe user network device (510), wherein the first GTP tunnel of the oneor more GTP tunnels (520) may be associated with a first TEID (e.g.,TEID X). A GTP module of the user-facing station (530) may be configuredto associate the one or more UDP packets with a DNS class (e.g., aspreviously described) and forward the one or more packets (first DNSquery) to a DNS module of the user-facing station (530) (e.g., 280 inFIG. 2 ). The DNS module of the user-facing station (530) may beconfigured to store in a memory one or more information items associatedwith the first DNS query (e.g., a destination IP address and/or servername) and transmit the first DNS query (611) to the web-facing station(550) (e.g., using a first internal tunnel (540) corresponding to thefirst GTP tunnel of the one or more GTP tunnels (520)).

The web-facing station (550) may be configured to receive (e.g., fromthe user-facing station (530) and/or over the first internal tunnel(540)) at least the first DNS query (611), associate the first DNS querywith a first GTP tunnel of the one or more GTP tunnels (560) that may beassociated with the one or more servers (570), encapsulate the DNS queryin the first GTP tunnel of the one or more GTP tunnels (560), andtransmit the first DNS query (612) to a DNS server of the one or moreweb servers (570). The web-facing station (550) may be furtherconfigured to receive a first DNS response (620) corresponding to thefirst DNS query (612) (e.g., from a DNS server (570)). The first DNSresponse (620) may be included in one or more UDP segments encapsulatedin a second GTP tunnel of the one or more GTP tunnels (560) associatedwith the one or more servers (570), wherein the second GTP tunnel of theone or more GTP tunnels (560) may be associated with a second TEID(e.g., TEID Y). The web-facing station (550) may be configured totransmit the first DNS response (621) to the user-facing station (530)(e.g., using a second internal tunnel (540) corresponding to the secondGTP tunnel of the one or more GTP tunnels (560)). At least for thepurpose of supporting DNS caching, the web-facing station (550) may beconfigured to process DNS messages in a manner similar to processing anyUDP segment that may be application unspecific (e.g., as previouslydescribed), wherein said processing may include GTP tunnel headercompression and/or compression of IP and/or UDP headers associated withthe DNS messages.

The DNS module of the user-facing station (530) may be configured toreceive, (e.g., from the web-facing station (550) and/or over the secondinternal tunnel (540) corresponding to a second GTP tunnel of the one ormore GTP tunnels (520)), at least the first DNS response and associatethe first DNS response with the first DNS query, wherein saidassociating may comprise, for example, using the one or more informationitems associated with the first DNS query, which may have beenpreviously stored in a memory of the user-facing station (530). Theuser-facing station (530) may be configured, for at least the purpose ofprocessing subsequent DNS queries, to derive from said association ofthe first DNS response with the corresponding first DNS query anassociation between the first GTP tunnel of the one or more GTP tunnels(520) (forward GTP tunnel) and the second GTP tunnel of the one or moreGTP tunnels (520) (return GTP tunnel) and store the derived associationbetween the first GTP tunnel and the second GTP tunnel, for example, ina tunnels database of a GTP module of the user-facing station (530). Theuser-facing station (530) may be further configured to encapsulate thefirst DNS response in accordance with the second GTP tunnel of the oneor more GTP tunnels (520) and transmit the first DNS response (622)(e.g., to the user network device (510)). The DNS module of theuser-facing station (530) may be further configured to use at least oneDNS caching method for at least the purpose of caching DNS informationusing information included in the first DNS query and/or the first DNSresponse.

The user-facing station (530) may be configured to receive (e.g., from auser network device (510)), a second DNS query (630), wherein the secondDNS query (630) may correspond to the same domain as the first DNS query(610) or to a different domain. The second DNS query (630) may beincluded in one or more UDP packets encapsulated in the first GTP tunnelof the one or more GTP tunnels (520) (e.g., TEID X) associated with theuser network device (510). The user-facing station (530) may beconfigured to determine, for example, using a tunnels database of a GTPmodule of the user-facing station (530), a second GTP tunnel of the oneor more GTP tunnels (520), wherein the second GTP tunnel (e.g., TEID Y)may be the return GTP tunnel corresponding to the first GTP tunnel(forward GTP tunnel). The user-facing station (530) may be configuredto, if a second GTP tunnel may be determined, use the at least one DNScaching method for at least the purpose of retrieving DNS informationfrom a DNS cache, generate a DNS response corresponding to the secondDNS query (630) using the retrieved DNS information, encapsulate the DNSresponse in accordance with the second GTP tunnel of the one or more GTPtunnels (520), and transmit the GTP encapsulated DNS response (640)(e.g., to the user network device (510)). The user-facing station (530)may be configured to, if a second GTP tunnel may not be determined,process the second DNS query as previously described in reference to thefirst DNS query, even if DNS information for the domain associated withthe second DNS query may be available in a DNS cache associated with theuser-facing station (530).

According to 3GPP recommendations (ETSI TS 129 281, paragraph 4.2.2),GTP endpoints should avoid IP fragmentation of GTP packets (e.g.,packets exchanged between GTP endpoints using the GTP-U), yet IPfragmentation of GTP packets is not categorically forbidden. In someembodiments, a GTP module of a sender station (200) and/or a GTP moduleof a receiver station (300) may be configured to support transfer of IPfragmented GTP packets over a satellite link.

As previously described, the receiver station (300) may be configured toreconstruct or locally generate at least a sequence number field in aGTP header of a packet transmitted by the receiver station (300) to acoupled network device (e.g., for at least the purpose of acceleratingTCP traffic by generating local (spoofed) acknowledgements), whereinnumbering of packets inside the GTP tunnel may be needed or requested.Such reconstruction or local generation of the sequence number field maylead to at least one GTP packet having a first sequence number value inthe GTP tunnel (e.g., 310) at the sender station end and a secondsequence number value in the GTP tunnel (e.g., 330) at the receiverstation end, wherein the first sequence number value and the secondsequence number value may be different. Such differences in sequencenumber values may not affect regular GTP packets, but it may cause anissue for an IP fragmented GTP packet.

An IP fragmented GTP packet may comprise two or more IP fragments,wherein a GTP header and a UDP header corresponding to the GTP packetmay be included only in the first IP fragment but not in the additionalone or more IP fragments. Thus, association of an IP fragment of the oneor more additional IP fragments to a GTP tunnel may be achieved, forexample, by at least comparing an identification field value that may beincluded in an IP header corresponding to the IP fragment (e.g., of theone or more additional IP fragments) with an identification field valuethat may be included in an IP header corresponding to the first IPfragment (e.g., wherein an Identification field included in an IP headermay be used for identifying a group of fragments of an IP datagram).

The GTP module (210) of the sender station (200) may be configured to,upon receiving at least one packet (e.g., of the one or more receivedpackets), determine whether the at least one packet may be a firstfragment of an IP fragmented GTP packet, for example, by at leastexamining whether an MF flag (More Fragments) in an IP headercorresponding to the at least one packet is set. The GTP module (210) ofthe sender station (200) may be configured to, upon determining that theat least one packet may be a first fragment of an IP fragmented GTPpacket, extract an Identification field from the IP header correspondingto the at least one packet and create a new record in the tunnelsdatabase (215) (e.g., of the GTP module), the new record comprising atleast the extracted Identification field (and/or an internal TEID indexcorresponding to the GTP tunnel corresponding to the IP fragmented GTPpacket (e.g., based on a GTP header included in the first fragment ofthe IP fragmented GTP packet)). The GTP module (210) of the senderstation (200) may be configured to, upon determining that the at leastone packet may be a first fragment of an IP fragmented GTP packet, notapply GTP tunnel header compression to the at least one packet, mark theat least one packet as a first fragment of an IP fragmented GTP packet,and send the at least one packet (e.g., uncompressed) to thecorresponding receiver station (300).

In some embodiments, the GTP module (210) of the sender station (200)may be further configured to, upon sending the at least one packet tothe corresponding receiver station (300), forward the at least onepacket to the satellite interface module (290) of the sender station(200) while bypassing (217) the one or more protocol specific and/orapplication specific modules (e.g., 220 to 280) of the sender station(e.g., denying any specialized processing for the at least one packet).The receiver station (300) may be configured to, upon receiving the atleast one packet, determine that the at least one packet may be a firstfragment of an IP fragmented GTP packet (e.g., by determining a firstfragment mark associated with the at least one packet) and forward theat least one packet to the GTP module of the receiver station (300)while bypassing the one or more protocol specific and/or applicationspecific modules of the receiver station (300).

The GTP module of the receiver station (300) may be configured to (e.g.,upon receiving the at least one packet) determine that the at least onepacket is uncompressed, determine that the at least one packet is afirst fragment of an IP fragmented GTP packet, and determine whether asequence number field included in a GTP header included in the at leastone packet may need to be modified. The GTP module of the receiverstation (300) may be configured to (e.g., upon determining that the saidsequence number field does not need modifying) send the at least onepacket (e.g., to a coupled network device). The GTP module of thereceiver station (300) may be configured to (e.g., upon determining thatthe said sequence number field may need to be modified) modify thesequence number field (e.g., in accordance with a packet count at thereceiver station (300) associated with a GTP tunnel corresponding to theat least one packet). Once the sequence number field in the GTP headerincluded in the at least one packet has been modified, however, achecksum value in a UDP header that may be included in the at least onepacket may no longer be correct.

Since the at least one packet may be transmitted by the sender station(200) and/or received by the receiver station (300) uncompressed, the atleast one packet may still include the original GTP header of the IPfragmented GTP packet, including the original sequence number value(e.g., prior to the modifying described above) upon being received atthe GTP module of the receiver station (300). The GTP module of thereceiver station (300) may be configured to, upon modifying the sequencenumber field in the GTP header (e.g., that may be included in the atleast one packet), record the original sequence number value prior tomodifying the sequence number field in the GTP header, calculate amodified checksum value for the checksum field in the UDP header thatmay be included in the at least one packet (e.g., after modifying thesequence number field in the GTP header), replace the checksum value inthe UDP header with the calculated modified checksum value, and transmitthe modified at least one packet (e.g., that may include a modified GTPsequence number and/or a modified UDP checksum), for example, to acoupled network device. In some embodiments, calculating the modifiedchecksum value (e.g., in accordance with RFC 1071 recommendations) maycomprise determining the original checksum value (C) (e.g., from the UDPheader included in the at least one packet), determining the originalsequence number value (SN) (e.g., the recorded original sequencenumber), determining the modified sequence number value (SN′), andcalculating the checksum value (C′) using the formula C′=C+(SN′−SN).

Furthermore, the GTP module (210) of the sender station (200) may beconfigured to, upon receiving an IP fragment (e.g., that may not be afirst fragment of an IP datagram), use the tunnels database (215) for atleast the purpose of determining whether the IP fragment may beassociated with an IP fragmented GTP packet for which a first fragmentmay have already been received. The GTP module (210) of the senderstation (200) may be configured to extract an identification value fromidentification field of an IP header corresponding to the IP fragmentand search the tunnels database (215) for a record corresponding to theextracted identification value. The GTP module (210) of the senderstation (200) may be configured to discard the IP fragment if a recordcorresponding to the extracted identification value does not exist inthe tunnels database (215). The GTP module (210) of the sender station(200) may be configured to, if a record corresponding to the extractedIdentification value exists in the tunnels database (215), mark the atleast one packet as uncompressed and to send the at least one packet tothe corresponding receiver station (300) (e.g., while bypassing (217),the one or more protocol specific and/or application specific modules(e.g., 220 to 280) of the sender station (200)). The GTP module (210) ofthe sender station (200) may be further configured to, upon determiningthat an IP fragment is associated with an existing record in the tunnelsdatabase (215), determine whether the IP fragment is the last fragmentof an IP fragmented GTP packet (e.g., by determining that an IP headercorresponding to the IP fragment includes an unset MF flag and anon-zero fragment offset), and delete the associated record from thetunnels database (215) if the IP fragment is the last fragment of the IPfragmented GTP packet. The receiver station (300) may be configured to,upon receiving the IP fragment, determine that the IP fragment isuncompressed and to send the IP fragment to a coupled network device,while bypassing the one or more protocol specific and/or applicationspecific modules of the receiver station (300).

IP fragmentation may be used within a GTP tunnel (e.g., for the packetsencapsulated inside the GTP tunnel). Such fragmentation may be handledby the sender station (200) and/or the receiver station (300). Forexample, the sender station (200) may be configured to send fragments ofa packet without applying header compressing (e.g., at the encapsulatedprotocol level, but perhaps with GTP tunnel header compression) and/orthe receiver station (300) may be configured to rebuild a packet fromits received fragments prior to encapsulating the packet into therespective GTP tunnel.

Various aspects of the disclosure may be embodied as one or moremethods, systems, apparatuses (e.g., components of a satellitecommunication network), and/or computer program products. Accordingly,those aspects may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, anentirely software embodiment, an entirely firmware embodiment, or anembodiment combining firmware, software, and/or hardware aspects.Furthermore, such aspects may take the form of a computer programproduct stored by one or more computer-readable storage media havingcomputer-readable program code, or instructions, embodied in or on thestorage media. Any suitable computer readable storage media may beutilized, including hard disks, CD-ROMs, optical storage devices,magnetic storage devices, and/or any combination thereof. In someembodiments, one or more computer readable media storing instructionsmay be used. The instructions, when executed, may cause one or moreapparatuses to perform one or more acts described herein. The one ormore computer readable media may comprise transitory and/ornon-transitory media. In addition, various signals representing data orevents as described herein may be transferred between a source and adestination in the form of electromagnetic waves traveling throughsignal-conducting media such as metal wires, optical fibers, and/orwireless transmission media (e.g., air and/or space).

Modifications may be made to the various embodiments described herein bythose skilled in the art. For example, each of the elements of theaforementioned embodiments may be utilized alone or in combination orsub-combination with elements of the other embodiments. It will also beappreciated and understood that modifications may be made withoutdeparting from the true spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Thedescription is thus to be regarded as illustrative instead ofrestrictive on the present disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, by a firstdevice, a first plurality of packets encapsulated with general packetradio service tunneling protocol (GTP) headers; removing the GTP headersfrom the first plurality of packets to yield a plurality ofcorresponding packets without GTP headers; applying one or moreacceleration techniques to the plurality of corresponding packetswithout GTP headers to yield a plurality of accelerated packets withoutGTP headers; and transmitting the plurality of accelerated packetswithout GTP headers to a second device in communication, via acommunications link, with the first device, wherein the plurality ofaccelerated packets without GTP headers include information forgenerating a second plurality of packets encapsulated with GTP headersat the second device.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprisinggenerating, at the second device, the second plurality of packetsencapsulated with GTP headers, wherein the generating comprises:determining, by the second device, based on the information, a tunnelendpoint identifier (TEID) of a GTP header of the second plurality ofpackets encapsulated with GTP headers.
 3. The method of claim 1, whereinthe information comprises a tunnel index specifying an internal tunnelcarried over the communications link.
 4. The method of claim 3, furthercomprising: storing, by the first device, an association between thetunnel index and a TEID of a GTP header of the first plurality ofpackets encapsulated with GTP headers.
 5. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: identifying recurring data in the plurality of correspondingpackets without GTP headers; and prior to the transmitting, removing therecurring data from the plurality of corresponding packets without GTPheaders.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the communications link is asatellite link, wherein the first device and the second device comprisesatellite modems.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the accelerationtechniques include one or more of transmission control protocol (TCP)acceleration techniques, hyper text transfer protocol (HTTP)acceleration techniques, caching techniques, or Voice over IP (VoIP)treatment techniques.
 8. An apparatus configured to: receive a firstplurality of packets encapsulated with general packet radio servicetunneling protocol (GTP) headers; remove the GTP headers from the firstplurality of packets to yield a plurality of stripped packets; apply oneor more acceleration techniques to the plurality of stripped packets toyield a plurality of accelerated packets; and transmit the plurality ofaccelerated packets to a second device in communication, via acommunications link, with the apparatus, wherein the plurality ofaccelerated packets include information for generating a secondplurality of packets encapsulated with GTP headers at the second device.9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the information comprises a tunnelindex specifying an internal tunnel carried over the communicationslink.
 10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the apparatus is furtherconfigured to: store an association between the tunnel index and a TEIDof a GTP header of the first plurality of packets encapsulated with GTPheaders.
 11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the apparatus is furtherconfigured to: identify recurring data in the plurality of strippedpackets; and prior to the transmitting, remove the recurring data fromthe plurality of stripped packets.
 12. The apparatus of claim 8, whereinthe communications link is a satellite link, wherein the apparatuscomprises a satellite modem.
 13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein theacceleration techniques include one or more of transmission controlprotocol (TCP) acceleration techniques, hyper text transfer protocol(HTTP) acceleration techniques, caching techniques, or Voice over IP(VoIP) treatment techniques.
 14. A system comprising: a first device anda second device in communication via a communication link, wherein thefirst device is configured to: receive a first plurality of packetsencapsulated with general packet radio service tunneling protocol (GTP)headers; remove the GTP headers from the first plurality of packets toyield a plurality of stripped packets; apply one or more accelerationtechniques to the plurality of stripped packets to yield a plurality ofaccelerated packets; and transmit the plurality of accelerated packetsto the second device, wherein the second device is configured to:generate, based on information in the plurality of accelerated packets,a second plurality of packets encapsulated with GTP headers.
 15. Thesystem of claim 14, wherein the second device is further configured todetermine, based on the information, a TEID of a GTP header of thesecond plurality of packets encapsulated with GTP headers.
 16. Thesystem of claim 14, wherein the information comprises a tunnel indexspecifying an internal tunnel carried over the communications link. 17.The system of claim 16, wherein the first device is further configuredto: store an association between the tunnel index and a TEID of a GTPheader of the first plurality of packets encapsulated with GTP headers.18. The system of claim 14, wherein the first device is furtherconfigured to: identify recurring data in the plurality of strippedpackets; and prior to the transmitting, remove the recurring data fromthe plurality of stripped packets.
 19. The system of claim 14, whereinthe communications link is a satellite link, wherein the first deviceand the second device comprise satellite modems.
 20. The system of claim14, wherein the acceleration techniques include one or more oftransmission control protocol (TCP) acceleration techniques, hyper texttransfer protocol (HTTP) acceleration techniques, caching techniques, orVoice over IP (VoIP) treatment techniques.